Real Madrid and Portugal footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has purchased majority shares in one of Portugal’s biggest digital agencies as part of his investment portfolio. Cristiano is now the controlling investor in agency Thing Pink and will reportedly launch his own tech brand 7egend.

Thing Pink have collaborated with the four-time Ballon d’Or winner having previously created all the digital content for the famously humble superstar’s museum in Funchal, that is dedicated to himself and his trophies.

Thing Pink describes itself as a collection of “strategists, designers, producers, pirates and proud geeks.” The agency has offices in Lisbon and Oporto and has produced applications for clients including McDonald’s, Levis and Porto football club.

Earlier this month Cristiano posted a video to his Instagram account showing the logo 7EGEND with the comment “Going Digital”. The branding also appears on the homepage of Thing Pink with no other information other than the captions “It begins now” and “Future-proof tech agency.”

“We mostly do design animation film for fashion. I think over the last two years all our clients have been fashion clients,” Carl Burgess says. In the two years that Carl and his business partner Tom Darracott have been working together as a motion and design studio under the near-ungoogleable moniker More and More, the aesthetic of fashion advertising has shifted. When they began “animation and 3D and this whole digital world wasn’t really embraced in fashion,” Carl tells me. “It’s just grown massively.”

It’s Nice That’s Ones to Watch is our chance to showcase 12 creatives who we think will be making an impact in 2017. The people featured have been whittled down from a global pool of creative talent and have been chosen for their ability to consistently produce inspiring and engaging work. Each one practices across a diverse range of disciplines and continually pushes the boundaries of their creative output. Ones to Watch 2017 is supported by Uniqlo.

Lucy Hardcastle is mid-way through her masters in Experience Design at the Royal College of Art, but still somehow found time to complete a major collaboration with Chanel and i-D. The latest in its ongoing collaborative series of digital projects called The Fifth Sense, Lucy’s contribution Intangible Matter is an entrancing interactive online experience that visualises senses. Soundtracked by producer Fatima Al Qadiri and built by Stinkdigital, it’s one of the most genuinely immersive digital projects we’ve seen recently.

“I never thought I’d be doing this as a job. I’m so happy that I am,” Hackney-based video artist-director Natalia Stuyk tells me of her career making mind-bendingly disorientating visuals. After studying animation at university, Natalia was working in advertising when she began making music videos for friends of friends. “Then, over a glass of wine, a good friend of mine convinced me to take a chance and quit my job and give it a go full-time. It’s just got better and better ever since!”

Active Arab Women is a project aiming to overcome Gulf Arab stereotypes by publishing the stories of female athletes in Kuwait. Designer Lara Al-Hadeedi wanted to record their struggles and successes, as sportswomen as well as in their everyday lives. She says: “Their training instills a level of purpose, self assurance and autonomy over their lives and bodies in a culture that tries to take that away; and this definitely also applies in the West. The simple act of a triathlete going for a run alone at night in the desert is so powerful. Particularly in a country that once didn’t allow women to leave the house unaccompanied. Their self-determination needs to be applauded, not shamed because it’s outside the status quo.”
Lara has so far profiled a national basketball player, kickboxer, wakeboarder and triathlete, among others; and all of whom are working towards not only their own success but advocating sports as a viable career option or positive lifestyle choice for young women. “They not only have to contest with income inequality, but a culture that can stigmatise women engaging in physical activity. There is shame surrounding anything viewed as ‘non-feminine’, including muscles, sweat or ambition. We are taught from infancy to never bring ‘shame’ upon our family or country, cultural or religious, and the tie to exercise is that the clothing can be viewed as ‘immodest’, which is one of the biggest frustrations these girls have. It’s nothing new to have so much attention focussed on the way women look and dress at work, but I think when it comes to limiting and shaming women for these reasons it is a lot worse in the Middle East.”But things are changing, “There’s a huge amount of entrepreneurial start-ups, networks and workshops, breaking down traditional barriers and hierarchies, creating safe spaces for young people that never existed before. Women now have far more to aspire to and are finally being taken seriously. But as with everything, it takes time” says Lara. Developments in mobile technology have also had a big impact, “The internet, and social media in particular have become an outlet for people. It fills the void left by the lack of entertainment culture, bringing popular culture to us in real-time and allowing us to create our own.”